Today, rather than posting a regular article, I’m interviewing the fabulous Natalie Braine! She’s a writer and theology nerd, as well as an incredible person with really cool insights on the world. And she also happens to be one of my closest friends 😉

So uh…without further ado, let’s get into the interview, I guess!

Me: So…first of all, can you just talk a bit about who you are and what you’re passionate about? Or, what type of impact you want to make on the world, and how?

Natalie: Hi there, world! I, obviously, am that strange being known as “Natalie.” I’m a teenage writer and aspiring apologist, which basically just means I’m a nerd. I have a strange obsession with all things Jesus, but hey, He saved me! It’s the least I could do to get to know Him as best as I can. It’s my mission to spread the truth of His Word to a world that has forgotten Him, specifically in a way that is accessible to my generation. When I’m not trying to explain what “Molinism” is, (if you know what it is, I applaud you) I can almost always be found with my headphones on, reading, writing, or watching stories, or chatting with just about anyone about just about anything. I also may or may not be a huge fan of hyperbole and sarcasm 🙂

Me: So, you mentioned you like writing. What kinds of things do you write about, and what do you aim to accomplish/do for the world with your writing?

Natalie: I write about a lot of things. I am a HUGE advocate for using stories to spread biblical truth, and I aim for having my stories be one of the ways the Gospel is spread to those who are seeking it. But! Since I am no CS Lewis, I’m not quite at the level where I can write a whole allegory quite yet. So, for the moment, I’m just growing my skill writing whatever I can! I’m a fan of the dystopian genre, so that’s primarily the area I write in fiction-wise. I love being able to weave themes of redemption and restoration into an unexpected story. However, I’ve also started branching out into more nonfiction writing, specifically for my newsletter and for websites like the Warrior Co. and Children of the Day! Though they’re both very different things to write, my end goal is still the same: to share the hope of Christ to all with ears to hear.

Me: Cool! Can you talk a bit about how you weave those themes into the stories you write? Do you think it’s possible to do that without making a story explicitly Christian, and why should Christian writers focus on showing Biblical Truths to our readers?

Natalie: Well, I’m no expert. I’m still trying to grow in my skills, but I can give you a rough outline of what I believe a “Christian theme” should be.

Lemme define what I mean by “Christian theme” before I start. A Christian theme isn’t just something that aligns with scripture (such as, “be kind!” or “God wants us to love everyone!”) a good theme asks a moral question, such as “what does it mean to love our enemies?” or “why does God want us to respect one another?” I believe that a Christian theme is a biblically sound answer to the question you chose. Each of your characters’ internal struggles will be their own answer to this thematic question, and throughout the course of the story it’s up to the author to help the reader see what answer is actually true.

Now, it’s important to remember that if your answer specifically includes God as a person, and not just a moral standard, then a writer cannot exclude a Christ figure from their story. This can be a fictional portrayal of a savior, such as Martin the Warrior from the Redwall books, or it can explicitly include Him as a character, whether addressed directly or indirectly. My own work in progress has a fictional portrayal of a savior, as my story deals with finding freedom in Christ. Including a Christ figure in your story doesn’t necessarily make it preachy! When done well, adding a Christ figure could make your story THAT much more powerful.

Displaying a biblical theme shouldn’t be optional for Christian writers. I’m not saying that every single story written by a Christian needs to be the next Narnia-level allegory, or even explicitly Christian, but having a theme that reflects ideas in Scripture and the character of God should be an aspect in whatever they happen to be writing. Why do I make such a bold claim? Because we’re called to reflect Christ in everything we do, and that includes in our art! Jesus told stories, excellent stories in fact, and He never once told one just for the sake of telling a good story. He told stories to explain truths about Himself and His Word, and we should strive to do the same with all the art we create. Our art and our love for Christ can’t be separated.

Me: That’s really good advice! You also mentioned you’re interested in apologetics. Sorry about all the intense questions, but could you share a bit about why you think it’s important to know about apologetics? What makes it necessary?

Natalie: Oh, there’s so many reasons why apologetics is important! I’ll start off by saying that so many Christian teenagers today wouldn’t know how to respond if a Muslim, Agnostic, or Pantheist asked a serious question about their faith. 1 Peter commands us to ALWAYS be ready to give a response when someone has a question about our faith, and yet so many people I know wouldn’t know how to respond if someone asked why they believe Jesus died for them. If you don’t know what and why you believe, then you’re no better than the house built on sand. One foul blow and your faith may topple over. So it’s a response to attacks from the enemy on a personal level with your faith, but it’s also a scriptural command and great evangelistic tool to get the good news out there into the world!

Me: That makes sense! How has your understanding of apologetics (or theology, which I know you’re interested in) helped you or impacted your own life/thoughts?

Natalie: The more I learn about God, the more I’m fascinated by Him. It’s helped me remember to ask for His help in my day-to-day life, it’s helped me realize flaws in my own character, and it’s strengthened my personal study of His word. By knowing more about Him, it’s helped me realize just a little bit of how Wonderful He is, and how no matter how many times I falter or the enemy comes to attack me I can KNOW, with certainty, that God will fight for me. I’m “convinced” as Paul famously said.

Me: Alright, cool! I definitely agree that an understanding of apologetics, as well as theology and stuff like that, is super important. But do you have any tips for teens who want to learn more about these subjects, but don’t know where to start?

Natalie: The only place to start is in prayer. As my dad always says, “Prayer is where the power is!” Ask the Holy Spirit for wisdom, discernment, and guidance as to where to start, and surrender yourself daily to the Lord to use you as a vessel for whatever He has planned for you. After that, I would recommend starting with reading the New Testament, and then the Old. The Bible is its own apologist (somebody else said that), and you need to actually KNOW what you’re studying about. As for additional resources to supplement your reading, I recommend watching the documentary American Gospel: Christ Crucified, and I would also recommend checking out the Alisa Childers Podcast, as well as reasonablefaith.org and desiringgod.org for some voices from the experts. But I would HIGHLY encourage you to find someone close to you who knows a lot about theology. Be that your pastor, your parents, a teacher, anyone who’s actually studied these things and can offer insight and answer questions. I would be completely lost without the help of my mom and dad in this learning curve! If you can find someone who could informally mentor you in theology, if you feel called to deeply study it, then PLEASE please do.

Me: Alright! And speaking of teenagerhood, learning, etc., you are a teenager (as am I, lol), and you’re doing some pretty cool stuff right now. Some people would probably say that the teenage years should be a time to relax and play around, that there’s no reason to do hard things or take so much initiative as a teen. What would you say to that?

Natalie: If you had 70 hours left to live, what would you do with them? Something tells me that you aren’t going to spend 25 of those hours lazing around or partying. You’ll be spending every second that you can spare getting every meaningful thing that you can accomplished in that short time frame.

Did you know that God gives us a relative life expectancy in the Bible? Psalm 90:10 says that we have roughly 70 years on this planet. And those years tend to just slip through our fingers if we don’t seize every second of them. Obviously, when you’re a child things are different, but when you’re a young adult you have a certain kind of exuberance and freedom that isn’t really true of people in later stages of life. If your goal was to be a professional sports player, you can’t hold that off until you’re 30. You have to take the time NOW, while you’re still limber, to become the best you can be. The future is now, my friend! Every part of our lives as teens are shaping us into the people we’re going to be for the rest of our lives. Relaxing and playing around will get you NOWHERE.

Me: And…this last one is pretty random, but your view of predestination has always fascinated me, and I hadn’t heard of it until I talked to your dad about it a couple years ago. So I think it would be pretty cool if you could give a short little overview of what it is you believe?

Natalie: So first things first, I am not a theologian. I still have a LONG way to go before I’m even close, and there are people whose whole lives have been spent pondering these ideas. I am no expert, and what I know from the little research I’ve done is just a snowflake on the tip of the iceberg, even still I’ll try my best to explain what I do know. For anyone who’s unfamiliar with the concept of Predestination (it’s very theology-y) it’s dealing with the theories of how God selected who would accept the Gospel and who would not. The view that I believe to be the most solid is called Molinism, or “Middle Knowledge”, and it’s what Dr. William Lane Craig is famous for. In essence, it’s not that God selected some people to be saved and not others, but that He knew how each one of us would respond to the Gospel in every hypothetical situation we were put in. So God knows how you would respond to His call, Beatrice, if you were a member of a rural tribe in Africa, or a businesswoman in Beijing, or a landlord in Dickensian England. He knows every detail about every person who ever was, is, or will be, even hypothetical situations. The idea is that God has known all these things since before the creation of the world, and that He decided to create the world the way He did because the most people would respond to the Gospel out of their own free will in the situations we were placed in. So in every hypothetical world that could have been created, the most people would come to Him in this one. As I said, it’s so much more multifaceted than what I just summarized, and I highly encourage whoever’s reading this to check out the experts and what they have to say about this!

Born Californian, raised Tennessean, Natalie Braine’s an oddball all-around. For starters, she doesn’t say “y’all”, she’s convinced her characters actually exist, and she stands on the firm belief that tomatoes are disgusting. She was adopted into God’s family when she was four years old and has been growing in the grace and knowledge of Him ever since. When she’s not chatting with her writer friends, ranting about theology, or talking with her Heavenly Father, she’s typing away furiously at her novels, blasting music that is way louder than medically acceptable, or watching and quoting movies with her big hilarious family. You can subscribe to her newsletter at nataliebraine.kit.com

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